Pires’ playing is very nice indeed, full of singing line and spirituality. Abbado and his Orchestra Mozart are not in par with Pires unfortunately.
The orchestra adopts a “period” style playing in the strings section, which is fine, but the result is a very cold and emotionally detached sound, that doesn’t work well with Pires’. Pires’ other performances of k.466 are better, especially the one with the Berlin Philharmonic under Boulez (Europa Konzert from Lisbon).
The recording quality is good, if not exceptional.
(Image: DG)
Mozart – Piano Concertos No. 20, 27
Maria João Pires – Piano
Orchestra Mozart
Conductor – Claudio Abbado
Deutsche Grammophon, CD 0289 479 0075 7
